


Carry me Home

by Windian



Category: Tales of Zestiria
Genre: Edna and Mikleo friendship fic, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Sorey/Mikleo - Freeform, near-end game spoilers, there's suremiku but it's not the focus, written because I needed to know more about Edna and her brother and this game hates backstory
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-10
Updated: 2015-12-10
Packaged: 2018-05-06 00:28:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5395793
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Windian/pseuds/Windian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Edna imagines she’s back on the Spiritcrest. Whenever she was too tired, or sad, or sleepy, or when the two of them had been fighting Eizen would always come to find her. He’d scoop her up, and even if it was at the bottom of the mountain he’d carry her all the way up to the top.  And together, they’d go home."</p>
<p>Edna doesn't expect to be comforted by Meebo, of all people.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Carry me Home

Edna crouches near the bottom of Rayfalke with her bare feet in the dust. Her arms are curled around her knees and there are tears on her dress as Eizen comes to her.

"What wrong now, squirt?" he asks.

"The squirrel with the big bushy tail," Edna says, face burrowed into the soft material of her skirt. "It died. And it was my favourite."

"'Fraid that's something you're going to have to get used to. I told you, that's a fact of life for us seraphs. Everything has its time and everything dies. Except us."

He speaks callously, and Edna buries her face further into her skirt. "You're cruel," she says, her voice high and muffled.

"Probably."

With the practiced motion of having done it dozens of times before, her big brother scoops her up.

"C'mon, squirt. Let's go home."

Eizen's mean to her, but his strong arms always hold her so gently. Edna presses her face into his chest. He's cruel, but he never complains when her sniffling and crying gets his shirt all soaked.

"I'll always be here," he says, and Edna nods against his chest.

She's never doubted it.

* * *

"What… what on earth is she doing?"

After taking care of Eizen on Rayfalke, the Shepherd and his companions retired to the inn at Marlind early. Edna behaved as though she was fine. However— as Mikleo watches her slam the oven door closed and hurl a baking tray across the kitchen— clearly, it's obvious this is not one-hundred percent accurate.

"Oh my," says Lailah. "Is she… is she…?"

It's gone midnight, with their Shepherd tucked up in bed, along with everybody else sensible. Lailah, Zaveid and Mikleo however cluster outside of the kitchen, staring in disbelief.

"She is," Zaveid says, sounding stunned. "She's baking."

No one even needs to say the words: _But Edna hates cooking._ No one had yet forgiven Sorey's decision to put her on snack duty one day. Her ice pops were all melted. Her cookies had chipped one of Zaveid's teeth. Mikleo was convinced her fruit frappe had given him the first case of a seraph catching food poisoning.

_Good thing the innkeeper isn't here,_ Mikleo thinks, _otherwise she'd think there's a ghost in her kitchen breaking her tupperware._

The seraphs all cluster round the door, watching in a mixture of awe and horror as Edna bakes with what could only be called a _ferocity_. Instead of stirring her mixing bowl, she beats it to death. She doesn't so much as roll the pastry dough as she steam-rolls it. She hurls pots and pans. She's a tiny furious whirlwind of clenched teeth and tension as she glazes biscuits and kicks the stove door closed with her boot.

Perhaps this is the _Edna_ way of dealing with grief.

To try and relate to Edna of all people is something Mikleo doesn't even try to attempt (mostly, he tries to keep a distance between her and him. Both her jokes and her umbrella). But he cannot help but feel a strange empathy for her as she beats her dough batter to death. He knows next to nothing about her relationship with her brother, except that she waited for hundreds of years with Eizen, searching for a way to restore him to his former self.

If Sorey pulls off his plan, it'll be Mikleo who spends that time waiting that agonising wait while Sorey sleeps.

(and, if the malevolence in the land is never completely cleansed, and Sorey's plan fails, he may never wake, and the thought is so terrible that although he pretends everything is okay, Mikleo cannot sleep—)

"Do you think we should say something to her?" Lailah cups her hands around a hushed whisper.

Zaveid raises his hands. "Whoa. No, I'm not getting near her while she's got a weapon in hand."

"Honestly. It's a spoon, Zaveid!" Lailah hisses in exasperation.

"Yeah, but it's _Edna._ Even she can do the damage she does with an umbrella, think what she can do with a spoon. There's be a Zaveid shaped mess all over this floor and Mik-boy here will be the one to clean it up."

"Why _me_?" he hisses.

All three seraphs jump when Edna slams the stove, hard. "I _can_ hear you, you know."

Sheepishly he and Lailah come out from hiding behind the door, Zaveid hiding his look of terror behind a roguish grin.

Edna pays them no heed, now furiously cutting out cookies with normin-shaped cutters. Mikleo and Lailah exchange a discreet, panicked look.

"Ah… Edna, dear…" Lailah starts, pressing her fingers together, "are… are you alright?"

"Alright? Why wouldn't I be? Of course I'm alright." She slams the rolling pin down hard enough to make them jump. Her voice is utterly impassive, though there's the hint of something catching in her voice, like a loose thread dangling that threatens to tear the entire seam apart.

"Oh, um, that's good! Because we were just wondering why you were making snacks… quite so late?"

"We need to head for Camlann tomorrow. How are we going to take down all those hellions if we don't have any butter cookies?" Edna drawls as though this was obvious, and _of course_ she'd up at midnight making baked snacks. "Or are you making implications about my snack-making abilities?"

"Oh, no— of course not—"

"Because I'll have you know, I'm a fair, delicate maiden," Edna says, as she stabs a current bun. "And maidens are good at this sort of thing. Don't you think, Meebo?"

Normally Mikleo would scoff at this, but it's hard to disagree with Edna when a fate of being turned into normin shaped pieces of Mikleo seems a likely fate otherwise.

"Sure. It's. Uh. Nice of you to make all of this."

Edna beams at him.

Mikleo knows then he's never going to make it out of this Mikleo-shaped again.

He imagines it in horrifying detail:

_Here, Sorey. Look what I made for you._

_Oh, gosh, thanks Edna! They look great. I'm so impressed how you made them look like they're little Mikleos._

_Yes. Just like him._

Mikleo shivers. It's hard to believe someone so small could be so terrifying.

But then Edna says something even worse, her voice candy-floss sweet: "Here, Meebo. I made this for you."

She offers him a plate of something that perhaps once resembled normin-shaped butter cookies. It sort of looks like something that's been through a dragon attack now though. There's the tiniest hints of an evil grin caught in the corners of her mouth.

He looks to Lailah and Zaveid for help, but they stare in opposite directions. Apparently, having abandoned him as a lost cause.

"Ack…"

Somehow, it manages to get even worse. Tears start to form in the corner of Edna's eyes and she raises a quivering hand to brush them away. "I… I understand. I know my cooking is no good. I just wanted to try making you something, because you're my friend Mikleo…"

As Edna's shoulders rock with little sobs, Lailah gestures frantically.

"Eat. The Damn. Cookies. Mikleo," Zaveid spits out, between gritted teeth.

_Oh, god._

Thinking that at the very least amusement at his suffering will take Edna's mind of her brother, Mikleo takes a cookie.

Lailah and Zaveid owe him after this. This is truly what's called taking one for the team.

And oh, holy Ignominat. The biscuit doesn't so much as crunch as _crack_ under his teeth and he had no idea a cookie could taste like charcoal. He's in hell. He's literally in biscuit hell, which apparently is normin-shaped. He and Sorey found a casket with rolls preserved for a hundred years and _they_ tasted better. It's dry and awful but somehow Mikleo manages to choke it down, all the while with Edna's eyes fixed on him, unblinking.

"Well?" she asks.

"De… delicious," Mikleo manages.

Edna continues to stare, eyes taking him in with a level of detail that he begins to sweat.

And then she says: "Ugh. You're such a bad liar, Meebo."

And she stalks straight out of the kitchen.

Lailah offers a small disappointed sigh, and turns away. Zaveid shakes his head. Says, "Bro, you gotta learn how to treat the ladies." He makes to leave, too.

"What?" Mikleo yells after them. "What on earth did I _do_?"

* * *

The moon slips from one end of the sky to the other, and Mikleo gives up on sleep. Sorey was out like a light after dinner and even now he hasn't budged an inch. He might be the Shepherd, the savior of the world, vanquisher of hellions, ect, ect, but ever since Mikleo can remember this messiah of the people has slept with his mouth parted like a fish.

Mikleo sits by the side of the bed, running his fingers through Sorey's hair and thinks at least he isn't snoring tonight. Because by God, does Sorey snore. And wriggle in his sleep. And steal the blanket.

The moonlight casts white, luminous sails against the sheets, and Mikleo leans down to plant a kiss on Sorey's head, between the parting of his hair.

He agrees with Sorey. He can't think of any other way to achieve their shared dream, either. And yet that doesn't make the thought of losing him any easier.

There's a small flash of light, and the bed dips down beside him as Lailah appears. She looks down at Sorey, lost to the world, and smiles.

But it fades somewhat as she says, "Edna's not come back yet."

Mikleo nods. "I was worried about her, too," he admits.

"Will you help me look for her?"

He takes his hand away from Sorey's hair.

One day, soon, it'll have to be forever.

"I suppose we ought to."

* * *

For as long as Edna remembered, it'd just been her and Eizen.

Creatures were born and died. Humans grew old and then died. The world moved in waxes and wanes but eventually Edna came to realise that though the scenery changed everything really stayed the same. Kings were overthrown and monarchies fell but Rayfalke continued to tower over the world, impassable and immovable. Her and Eizen watched over it all, just as impassable and immovable. Like the very rock of the Spiritcrest itself.

Everything in its time, withered. Everything died.

Except for Eizen. Eizen had promised he would stay with her.

Nested under the boughs of the giant tree, beneath the cold stare of starlight, Edna curls further into herself. "You liar, Eizen. I hate you." She's thrown off the boots her brother gave her in a fit of anger, and her toes dig into the earth, damp and soft with early morning dew. It's still a few hours before dawn, the time of night of utter silence and stillness. Nothing rustles and nothing stirs. Edna is utterly alone. She draws her legs up closer to her and buries her face in the gauzy white material of her sundress.

"Edna, there you are. Lailah was wo—" Mikleo trails off as Edna lifts her head. Her cheeks are wet with tears.

The poor boy freezes in shock. "Oh.. oh crap. Edna, are you crying?"

The words are muffled by her face in her dress. "Is it that shocking, Meebo? I'm a _girl_ , after all. A fragile flower. A delicate butterfly."

There's a small sound as Mikleo bites down a snicker. "I'm not sure I've ever heard a less accurate description of you, ever."

She ignores him. There's a moment of hesitation, and then Edna hears the scuffle as Mikleo sits himself down beside her.

"Is there something exactly you want?" she asks in a cutting tone.

"If you don't want me here, I'll leave," Mikleo says.

Edna says nothing.

For a long time in silence they sit together. Mikleo drags her out of her memories when he asks, "Will you tell me about your brother?"

She lifts her head to eye him suspiciously. He's sat back against the great tree of the trunk with his hands folded, looking up at the stars. "Why do you want to know?"

"Curious," Mikleo says.

"I'm not interested in being babied," she warns him. "None of that pat on the back, 'there, there,' nonsense."

"I wouldn't dream of it. I'm not exactly the right sort of person for that, anyway."

"I admit I never thought _you'd_ come out here to comfort me, Meebo. I thought it would be Lailah with her origami, or Sorey, all with his, 'It'll be okay, honest!' shtick."

Mikleo chuckled. "That does sound like him."

"And instead I get my dear Feebleo. I'm genuinely moved."

"And I'm worried."

"Hm. I like you better when you're honest, Meebo."

"And now I've _even more_ worried."

"Don't worry so much. The sacrifice isn't until tomorrow night," Edna says.

"What?— wait, forget I asked." Edna peeks up to see Mikleo with his head buried in his hands.

The silence that falls between this time is more comfortable.

Finally, Edna starts to speak: "He was awful. He used to pick on me, all the time. He was never serious, except for when you didn't want him to be. He was just the worst."

"And who exactly are we talking about again?"

"Ugh. You _asked_ about my brother. Keep up, Ignorameleo."

"Well, that's a new one."

" _Anyway_. He never brushed his hair. And he always wore the same dumb coat. He had no fashion sense whatsoever. And he used to tease _me_ about it. He would call me names all of the time."

"I wonder what that would be like…"

"Shut up. One day, after a fight, it was raining and I opened my umbrella and found he'd cut it full of holes. I got soaked. And I _detest_ getting wet. So while he was sleeping I pulled the soles off his shoes. And poured a bucket of water over his head." A small smile creeps in at the corners of her mouth. "It was pretty great. You should have heard him. He woke up yelling like a grizzly bear. 'Edna, I'm gonna get you for this!' Heh. And that was start of the first great water war."

"The first?"

"Well, we had like, forty- seven of them. Or was it forty-eight? I forget."

"It sounded like you had fun together," Mikleo says.

"Well, he wasn't so bad. Sometimes," she admits. "Though one time he ticked me off so badly we nearly knocked down half the mountain while we were fighting."

"Half the mountain?" Mikleo says with wide eyes.

"Yes. Keep up, Meebo. And we put it back up again afterwards, anyway. Damn, that was annoying."

Mikleo just shakes his head in disbelief.

"Don't get me wrong though. Most of the time— like ninety eight percent— he was just a right royal pain. He was mean, and rude, and always told me I was a crybaby, and made fun of my cooking, and, worst of all…"

Furiously, she wipes away her tears welling in her eyes. "He was a giant, massive, huge, _liar_. He left, promising me that he was going to come back. He _promised_ me. And he did come back, but it was as a dragon." She hits the earth so hard it cracks beneath her fist. "Stupid Eizen! That wasn't what I asked at all, and he knew it. He was always so…"

She pulls her arms around her legs and pulls them tight to her. "I'll never forgive him for that," she says. "We were all one another ever had. I thought for sure if I looked long enough, I'd be able to find a way to bring my brother back to himself. But then Eizen started killing the humans that came to the mountain, and couldn't leave him. So I thought at least I could stay with him."

He'd always looked after her, so this time, it was her turn to look after him.

She'd waited for centuries. At first, he'd seemed to recognise her. There was still something of _Eizen_ in those giant, yellow eyes then, and when she approached he was able to pull himself away. Get himself away from her.

By the end, his eyes were a wild beast's eyes, and when she tried to lay a hand on his snout he tried to take it off with blood-soaked teeth. There were more holes in her umbrella that day, but she could no longer retaliate by pulling off the soles of her brother's shoes.

Because her brother was gone. Had been gone for years, except that she could never accept it.

"Guess… I was stupid, too."

"I don't think so," Mikleo says. He stares at his hands. "I mean, I understand. I know it's not the same thing, but I would do the same for Sorey."

"You're really going to wait for him?" Edna asks.

"Of course."

"Even knowing that this crazy plan of his might not even work? He might not ever wake up, you know."

"I know. But even so, I'd wait," Mikleo says.

Edna leans back against the mossy trunk of the tree. She stretches out her legs, staring up at the sky. "You sure are stupid, Meebo. But this time, I get you."

"Wow. The stars must have come out of alignment. I just agreed with Edna about something."

"Stup-leo," she spits.

"That was lame. You're losing your touch, Edna."

"Shut up."

After a moment, she says: "Just make sure you don't regret it. Hundreds of years is a long time to regret something. Trust me on that. Especially since only a baby still. Mikkiddo."

"Only compared to you. How many millenia have you been alive for?" Mikleo says.

"Rude. I don't know how Sorey tolerates you. Oh right. Because he's a moron, too."

"So we're all stupid, then?"

"Pretty much. How wonderful for Heldalf. The world's dumbest Shepherd and friends are coming to purify him."

They lapse into silence.

"I'll think about what you said. But I don't think I'll change my mind," Mikleo says.

"No. I didn't think you would," says Edna.

More silence.

"I think I understand you better now, Edna."

She doesn't reply. The moss is surprisingly comfortable, and at last, Edna starts to lapse into sleep.

"You're not going to stay out here with me all night, are you Meebo?" she asks.

"I don't mind so much."

"Well, I do. I bet Lailah's losing her mind with worry about where the two of us have gone."

"I expect she thinks you've murdered me with a spoon," Mikleo says, the shadow of a grin on his face.

"What?"

"Don't worry about it."

She would roll her eyes, but she's utterly exhausted. It's tempting just to fall asleep right here. But…

"Mikleo…" she says, "would you carry me back?"

" _What_?"

"I don't want to have to explain it. Just, please." There's none of her usual dry sarcasm as she asks, and there's a moment, and—

"Ugh. Fine."

It's awkward and at first Edna is convinced he's going to drop her, but at last Mikleo heaves her up, staggering.

"You're a lot heavier than you look," he wheezes.

"That's not a nice thing to say to a lady."

But although it takes a bit, he finally gets a better grip on her. He carries her back towards the inn, and Edna lets her eyes slide closed. She presses her cheek to Mikleo's chest.

She imagines she's back on the Spiritcrest. Whenever she was too tired, or sad, or sleepy, or when the two of them had been fighting Eizen would always come to find her. He'd scoop her up, and even if it was at the bottom of the mountain he'd carry her all the way up to the top. And together, they'd go home.

"Thank you, Mikleo," Edna says.


End file.
